Schools in the “leafy suburbs” of London are suffering a brain drain of top teachers to better-paid jobs in the City, the head of the teaching pay review body told the Evening Standard.

Dame Patricia Hodgson, head of the School Teachers’ Review Body, said schools in both middle class and deprived areas can end up with too many “coasting” teachers.

“If you have a system that rewards coasting in exactly the same way as it rewards real achievement and excellent teaching, there aren’t many incentives for people to do otherwise,” said the former BBC executive, whose mission is to break down the rigid national pay scales that still dominate the teaching profession.

This week Dame Patricia’s blueprint to let heads and governors pay more money to good teachers — and less to those deemed to be treading water — was formally embraced by Education Secretary Michael Gove.

It is bitterly opposed by unions, who see performance pay as divisive, demoralising and potentially unfair. Dame Patricia insisted that helping schools in deprived areas was at the heart of her proposals. But she argued they would also benefit affluent suburbs.

“You will find surprisingly poor school results in various peripheries of London,” she said.

“Of course, the explanation is that an awful lot of talent is commuting into London instead of teaching in their local schools.”

Last year David Cameron made a speech that singled out underperforming suburban schools as the next big challenge in improving education.

“If you think about the leafy suburbs, it’s quite hard for the schools in those areas,” said Dame Patricia. “They are competing for staff against jobs in the City.”

She said inner city schools were also losing good staff who moved out of London in their late twenties and thirties because they could not afford a family-sized house.

The NASUWT’s Chris Keates has said her approach would result in new teachers being marooned on their starting salary if automatic annual increases are ended.

Dame Patricia argued that struggling young teachers would be given more help to improve.

Other critics say teaching should be a vocation, not a marketplace. “Good teachers regard it as a vocation, of course,” Dame Patricia agreed.

“What motivates them most is making a difference to the lives of their pupils. But being rewarded for doing a good job is also quite important to people.”